Zellers is a Canadian discount department store that was founded in 1931. They sold a wide variety of Atari games in the early 1980's. But they didn't bother getting their games from Atari themselves. Instead, all of their games were bootlegs manufactured in Taiwan and sold without any licensing from Atari. They came in very plain packages, usually a simple red box featuring some strange artwork, the name of the game, and the words "2600 Compatible" in big white letters. Zellers could have claimed ignorance in the matter, but they had their name printed in small letter in the price square on the top right corner of the box.

The cartridge labels themselves are also different with a very simple end label and the same artwork that is found on the box. Atari was eventually able put a stop to all of this and Zellers quit selling 2600 games. These games were only sold in Canada, and therefore they are quite hard to find in the United States, but they are not too difficult to locate in Canada. These games were once thought to be very rare, but people quickly learned otherwise when they found out that these title were all over in Canada. Games in the original box are still quite rare, even if the cartridges are easy to find. Since there were no Zellers catalogs back then, no one is entirely certain what their full lineup of games was.

Many people find it difficult to believe that a major corporation would engage in wholesale piracy, but Zellers did, and on a massive scale at that.

1986 saw Zellers become somewhat of a pioneer in the retail field, developing a few notable strategies for improving customer retention and brand identity. The chain ran a series of ads featuring their mascot Zeddy, who touted the Law of Toyland: "Where the lowest price is the law." Zellers customers who found a toy advertised for less than Zellers' price received a cash rebate. Zellers' biggest success was Club Z (that's "Club Zed," remember folks, this is Canada), the forerunner to most of the retail "rewards programs" you see today. Club Z members would receive 50 to 100 points for every dollar spent at Zellers. After you amassed some 500,000 points, you might be able to exchange them for say a colander. Or a bag of diapers. Or Tupperware. You get the idea.